Attleboro Man's Band to be Featured During 'American Idol' Finale

The Ghillies, a local band started by Attleboro's own Artie Eaton, will soon get the chance to share its music during a coveted TV time slot.

The country rock band has made a name for itself by winning first place in a battle of 50 bands sponsored byand featured by Fox Providence's The Rhode Show. 

By winning the contest, The Ghillies earned the opportunity to create a music video that will be aired during the season finale of "American Idol." The video will be seen by all viewers in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.

"I am as excited as I can be," band member Artie Eaton said. "This whole venture with The Ghillies and how it came about has been a surreal ride."

"You Don’t Know Me"- it was more of a shtick," Eaton said. "But that is the video that won us the top five and it got us to point A." Click on the videos at right to see and hear the band play.

If that wasn't enough excitement for band members, they also won the chance to perform Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Lighthouse Stage, located at Twin River New England Gambling Casino. 

How the six Ghillies (most who live in Norton, Attleboro and North Attleboro) came together is a story in itself. Eaton has been performing gigs outside of Boston and eastern Massachusetts with Danny Klein, but his goal was never really to perform. In fact, his dream is to be a producer and work with artists in the studio. 

Since 2007/2008, Eaton and Chiz (Richard Chisholm) have been putting lyrics and material together to create a song book.

"We started shopping it around, but all we ever got from replies was 'more interested in the band and the sound,'" Eaton said.  "It’s hard to sell your songs that sound so good that artists ask 'why are they giving the songs to me.' I got so sick of hearing that and I said 'that’s it, I’m putting my band together.'"

Eaton worked his connections and got in touch with Chad Carlson, a producer/engineer out of Nashville who engineered music for Taylor Swift, Jewel and Chris Isaak.

"I sent Chad the CD and he called me back that day and said 'this is great,' " Eaton said. "We flew out to Nashville to finish the recording to have it mastered. We were still trying to shop the music and weren't sure whether we were going to get five backup musicians to play with Chuck."

The more the group rehearsed, however, the more they realized they already had a band in place. The band members, most of whom are from the Attleboro area, are: lead singer Chuck Nadeu, guitarist Bob Andrews (Andy), bass player Drew Fernburg (Gomez), drummer Richard Eisner (Goat), Michael Chisholm (Chiz) of Norton, and of course Eaton (Rusty).

"The music is so good and Chuck, our lead singer, is so good – he is Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean all mixed into one," he said.

With all the buzz, the group has scheduled a CD release party on Aug. 26 at the new where they may be singing with members of the Kenny Chesney band. 

Putting the band together, winning the contest to perform at Twin River and to have their video played to an "American Idol" audience has all come to fruition in the past eight weeks. The entire experience has put Eaton on a high and now he says: "I’m kind of waiting for the sky to fall."